December 25, 2025

CHRISTMAS DAY!

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.” (Luke 2.6-7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Jesus the Christ is born! You would have thought such an event would be the talk of the town. Headlines would bear the news to the entire world. News media would have run it as their lead story. The little town of Bethlehem would be ground zero for anyone and everyone who was “in the know.” Honestly, the birth of the King of kings and Lord of lords should have garnered the interest of the highest and the lowest and everyone in between. This is what “front page” is all about, right? I mean His name is Immanuel; Mighty God; Everlasting Father; Prince of Peace upon whose shoulders the governance of the whole world, the entire universe, would rest upon. There was no one like Him! Yet….

While Bethlehem was overcrowded with “out of towners” ordered to report for processing by a world government, it was not for the opportunity to witness the birth of a world changer. It was to be counted like sheep to determine the number in the herd as an accounting to Caesar.

While the heavens came alive shortly before dawn on the first day of the week with the angels appearing as if a meteor storm had fallen to earth and stopped short of destroying it, only a few shepherds keeping watch huddled around a fire in the early Spring were witnesses to it. It was a near-death experience for them. Prepared to give their lives in defense of the flock, they were not prepared for what God was doing with the birth of “the lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world.”

Even the magi, the wise men from the reaches of the empire whose job it was to watch for such signs that would impact the rule and reign of nations internally and externally, would not finally make their way to confirm what they had witnessed as fulfilled Jewish prophecy for another two years. By the time they arrived, there were no crowds or media or fanfare or interest beyond their own. The angels had returned to the heavens. The shepherds returned to tending to the flocks being groomed for what had become ineffective sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. The “out of towners” had all gone home like sheep without a shepherd. It was business as usual in every town and in every capital. There was a two-year-old boy playing outside a simple house where a mother kept watch while preparing lunch for her husband who had set up a makeshift carpentry business not far from the inn’s stable was found in which the only begotten Son of God had been born.

We call it the greatest love story ever told when Heaven came down and the glory of the Lord shone in a moment like lightning with thunder that would not be heard for thirty years. It happened. In the humblest of possibilities, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was born to a woman, according to Jewish Law, who in actuality was a girl nearly thirteen years old. Because of her faith as a child, she was chosen to bring forth a child who was, is and will always be the Son of God. She loved God so much that what would seem impossible was accepted as possible knowing that all things are possible with God and those who called upon His name. His earthly father was actually His stepfather in circumstances no other father had ever experienced. He was a righteous man and bound to do what was right by God. He would take Jesus as his son and give his life for Him without question because that is the true measure of a father’s love. It was just them. They had become a part of the Bethlehem landscape blending in with the crowd. Yet, those three never changed who they were. While the whole world went on as if nothing happened, they were the unknown anomaly waiting for the moment of recognition.

True love waits in agonizing patience to be found, known and brought forth. True love wants to live. True love wants to bring forth life in others. True love will not rush in but exists in great anticipation. It is personal and profound. It is spiritual and physical. It is logical and emotional. It is powerful and peaceful. It is the very essence of God who creates and sustains and waits to be revealed in indisputable truth that will not be denied. It is ordinary and extraordinary bringing all things into a unity and harmony where authenticity is the norm of what it really means to be alive. Christmas is not the birthday of that King and Lord, Shepherd and Sheep, Mighty God and Everlasting Father who is the Prince of Peace. Christmas is the recognition of God’s love for humanity made known in a baby born in Bethlehem so the truth of God can be known as what life is all about.

To capture this thought with the words of a Christmas hymn, “Good Christian men, rejoice. Lift heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say, Jesus Christ is born today. Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this.” Merry Christmas to all and to all love’s pure light.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.